Putting Israel’s “Perspective” in Perspective

[xenologer]

Putting Israel’s “Perspective” in Perspective

As we hear that the IDF is bombing universities and killing United Nations personnel in addition to the hundreds of Gazans already dead in the three days of the Israeli attack on Gaza, we will hear the inevitable cry "but Hamas has been lobbing rockets at Israelis for years from Gaza!" Juan Cole tells us about these rockets, and provides some perspective:

Israel blames Hamas for primitive homemade rocket attacks on the nearby Israeli city of Sederot. In 2001-2008, these rockets killed about 15 Israelis and injured 433, and they have damaged property. In the same period, Gazan mortar attacks on Israel have killed 8 Israelis.

Since the Second Intifada broke out in 2000, Israelis have killed nearly 5000 Palestinians, nearly a thousand of them minors. Since fall of 2007, Israel has kept the 1.5 million Gazans under a blockade, interdicting food, fuel and medical supplies to one degree or another. Wreaking collective punishment on civilian populations such as hospital patients denied needed electricity is a crime of war.

The Israelis on Saturday killed 5% of all the Palestinians they have killed since the beginning of 2001! 230 people were slaughtered in a day, over 70 of them innocent civilians. In contrast, from the ceasefire Hamas announced in June, 2008 until Saturday, no Israelis had been killed by Hamas. The infliction of this sort of death toll is known in the law of war as a disproportionate response, and it is a war crime.

But of course you won't see this on your evening news, not unless you live outside of the US. You're more likely to know about this if you live in Tel Aviv than if you live in Milwaukee.

Johann Hari backs up Cole's numbers on the rocket casualties, and offers a response to the Israelis' stand that they pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and the Gazans responded with rocket attacks:

The Israeli government did indeed withdraw from the Gaza Strip in 2005 - in order to be able to intensify control of the West Bank. Ariel Sharon's senior advisor Dov Weisglass was unequivocal about this, explaining: "The disengagement [from Gaza] is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that's necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians... Effectively, this whole package that is called the Palestinian state has been removed from our agenda indefinitely."

Ordinary Palestinians were horrified by this, and by the fetid corruption of their own Fatah leaders - so they voted for Hamas. ... It was a free and democratic election, and it was not a rejection of a two-state solution. The most detailed polling of Palestinians, by the University of Maryland, found that 72 percent want a two-state solution on the 1967 borders, while fewer than 20 percent want to reclaim the whole of historic Palestine. So, partly in response to this pressure, Hamas offered Israel a long ceasefire and a de facto acceptance of two states, if only Israel would return to its legal borders.

Rather than seize this opportunity and test their sincerity, the Israeli government reacted by punishing the entire civilian population. They announced they were blockading the Gaza Strip in order to "pressure" its people to reverse the democratic process. They surrounded the Strip and refused to let anyone or anything out. They let in a small trickle of food, fuel and medicine - but not enough for survival.

Dov Weisglass' comment was that the Gazans were being "put on a diet." Turns out it's a starvation diet: Oxfam says only 137 trucks of food were allowed into the Gaza Strip this November -- an average of 4.5 per day, compared to the December 2005 average of 564 per day. Gaza has nearly 1.5 million people crammed into 139 square miles -- 137 food trucks wouldn't begin to cover their needs, especially since the inhabitants aren't allowed to go outside of Gaza to seek work. The UN says poverty there has reached an "unprecedented level." Not exactly the conditions that engender feelings of brotherly love.

There might be people on reading who have a better grasp of this whole mess than I've got, but this seemed like a fairly good rundown. Is it? If I could get an opinion from someone with more knowledge in this area, that'd be awesome.

On the other hand, if all you have to say is that Palestinians are cockroaches and we need to support Israel (our allies, right or wrong!), then please don't comment. I'm looking for something that's been seriously considered, because this isn't an area I'm familiar with and I'm trying to get a more nuanced picture of it than Jews Good, Arabs Bad!

Comments

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I've nothing to add at the moment simply because I don't have time to read it all right now. But I will say an older friend and I have been having this basic conversation for several years, and we are convinced Israel needs to be held to the same standard as Palestine in U.S. opinion and view, instead of being given free passes. People also need to be able to critically point out Israeli political faults without being automatically dismissed as anti-Semitic, which is insulting. (Of course, most people in this country also need to learn that "Zionism" is NOT the same as "Judaism" but I don't see that happening soon.)

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

I'll second this comment. It's so depressing for me to see, because part of me understands just how much the Jewish people have been through-- my grandmother survived the Holocaust, after all-- and why they feel like they /deserve/ something of their own after all that, at any cost.

Still, it's like watching one of those children who endures terrible abuse as a child and then grows up to become a violent criminal themselves... only on a much larger scale.

[copperstewart.livejournal.com]

I tend to trust information from sources like jstreet.org and jewishvoiceforpeace.org. They seem to have less political or religious motivation to distort. JVP has some good background stuff here:

http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/101conflict.shtml

(I'm not as pro-Israel as these organizations... Israel was a horrible idea whose consequences were not only forseen, but planned and nurtured under familiar colonial "divide and conquer" tactics; the world is now stuck with it, and the approach of these kinds of orgs gives me what little hope I can muster around those conflicts.)

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

That was a good link. Thanks.

Israeli elections are coming

[cernowain.livejournal.com]

...and that's one significant reason for the bombing. Israeli voters tend to favor the "tougher" candidate.

Its also a "divide and conquer" attack on Palestinians. Believe it or not, Israel's attack on Gazan Hamas is supported by the West Bank PLOs-- for the enemy of my enemy is my friend even when its my enemy.

Israel's Gaza attacks are overboard and unjustifiable. But, consider this: if they succeed in uprooting Hamas and Gaza's Palestinians choose leaders who will sit at the table instead of launching rockets, then will not the peace process actually move forward? This is Israel's logic.

However, I believe bombs rarely make for peace. They usually make people angrier and more determined to be free.

bb,

Cern